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BMW Manufacturing CEO Erlacher moving to Germany; successor named

CEO Manfred Erlacher is becoming managing director of the company’s plant in Regensburg, Germany effective Feb. 1, according to a news release.

Knudt Flor, current head of corporate quality for the group, will assume leadership of the S.C. facility on Dec. 1, according to the BMW Group.

Flor has worked for the BMW Group for 28 years, in quality assurance and quality management. From 1998 to 2000, Flor worked at the S.C. facility in quality assurance of car assembly and purchased parts. He has also served as vice president of production at the company’s main plant in Munich and director of the plant in Rosslyn, South Africa.

Since assuming the leadership role in South Carolina, Erlacher oversaw the expansion of production from 300,000 vehicles per year to 400,000, according to the BMW Group’s news release. The S.C. plant is the largest plant in the company, by volume, the news release said.

Additionally, the plant has launched the BMW X4, BMW X3 LCI, second-generation BMW X6, BMW X5M and the X6 M, along with the BMW X5 xDrive40e, the first plug-in hybrid produced in South Carolina.

The facility is in the midst of a $1 billion expansion that will include a 1.2 million-square-foot body shop, a 200,000-square-foot expansion of the X5 and X6 assembly area and an addition to the logistics area of the plant. The company said production at the plant should reach 450,000 by the end of the year.